The Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) brings together in one framework all of the regions which the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and many other organisations use to collect, release and analyse geographically classified statistics. The ASGS ensures that these statistics are comparable and geospatially integrated and provides users with a coherent set of standard regions so that they can access, visualise, analyse and understand statistics. The 2016 ASGS will be used for the 2016 Census of Population and Housing and progressively introduced into other ABS data collections. The ABS encourages the use of the ASGS by other organisations to improve the comparability and usefulness of statistics generally, and in analysis and visualisation of statistical and other data.

This publication highlights the Indigenous Structure within the ASGS. The Indigenous Structure provides a geographical standard for the publication and analysis of statistics and other data about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples. It is particularly used for releasing data from the Census of Population and Housing.

The Indigenous Structure comprises 3 levels of geographic units in a single hierarchy - Indigenous Regions, Indigenous Areas and Indigenous Locations. The regions in the Indigenous Structure are constructed from Statistical Area Level 1 (SA1s) regions from the Main Structure of the 2016 ASGS.

This is the second volume in a series detailing the 2016 ASGS produced by the ABS. This volume is also part of the second edition of the ASGS, which updates the first edition (introduced in 2011) for growth and change in Australia's population, economy and infrastructure. The 2016 ASGS edition also incorporates the Territory of Norfolk Island for the first time.